Global+Virtual+Engineering+Team+Project

=Global Virtual Engineering Team Project= toc Research Project

Participants
John Messner (PI), Randolph Thomas (co-PI), Chuan Chen, George Joseph, and the entire CII Project Team 211

Sponsors
The Construction Industry Institute (Project Team 211)

Research Goal and Objectives
With the continued decline in cross-border barriers and obstacles, companies that perform engineering work in the EPC industry can develop competitive advantages through the expansion of their presence in global markets. However, with resources dispersed in various geographic locations, global companies have been facing many challenges related to the integration of these services, both managerially and technologically. With improvements in modern communication technology, it is now possible to adopt virtual teaming strategies that facilitate better communication and management of global design teams. Many questions related to the successful implementation of these global design teams remain. These include: This research seeks to address the above questions by developing a systematic methodology to guide global designers to successfully develop or optimize their global engineering workforce. The results will provide a decision support tool to evaluate if the company should engage in the use of a global engineering workforce, and if so, techniques should they pursue or improve to maximize the benefit from the global engineering team to the company or a project.
 * What are the preliminary conditions to consider virtual team use?
 * What are the best practices for building and maintaining global engineering teams?
 * What are the minimum and optimum technical requirements for a virtual engineering team system and how should you select appropriate information technology solutions?
 * What are the most critical factors for success in adopting virtual engineering teams?

Products Developed

 * GVET Execution Planning Application
 * Construction Industry Institute Reports (Project Summary and Research Report) -- see references below

Acknowledgments
We wish to thank all the members of the CII Project Team 211 who contributed a tremendous amount of time and effort toward this project, along with all the interview participants who supported the project.